2012 Friends Discussion Thread

[Aanchir]

Two bits of news:

First, The Brick Blogger has photos comparing a Friends fig (which can be seen here). Sure enough, they seem to be one plate taller than a standard minifigure, or the same height as a minifigure in a gown.

Second, a placeholder site for the theme is up on LEGO.com. Here's the site description:

"LEGO® Friends - Home – A whole new LEGO world for girls! Heartlake City is home to best friends Olivia, Emma, Andrea, Mia and Stephanie. Follow their adventures in Heartlake City, and create your own LEGO world with YOUR friends!"

I'm curious to see what kind of web features end up being on the site. After all, designing a website for girls could easily be just as different from what LEGO's used to as designing a toy for girls is.

[vexorian]

Meh, I need those 1x1 round trans red tiles.

[HuskerDont]

the Hedge hog is cute and so is the kitten not to mention the round 1x1 tiles!!

Looks like the hedgehog used to have a friend with him.

[Tamamono]

First, The Brick Blogger has photos comparing a Friends fig (which can be seen here). Sure enough, they seem to be one plate taller than a standard minifigure, or the same height as a minifigure in a gown.

Oh wow, that black hair looks great on Cleopatra! If the rest of the hairpieces fit like that, then I'm probably going to have to buy the entire line.

[just2good]

Two bits of news:

First, The Brick Blogger has photos comparing a Friends fig (which can be seen here). Sure enough, they seem to be one plate taller than a standard minifigure, or the same height as a minifigure in a gown.

...

Their hair is compatible with regular minifigures. I must get these sets now.

[-zenn]

The whole theme reminds me of Polly Pocket.

Might get some for my gf, she wanted new pink lego for a while now.

[Xyver]

I finally showed the pictures on brickset for this theme to my daughter this morning (she's 5) and she was most impressed.

She does love the standard Lego (police and fire mainly) but is more into playing with it than the building side, which suits me fine as it allows me to build! She always wants more of Bellville (which she calls barbie lego)

I have only bought a couple of the smaller Bellville sets due to the high cost for what you get, but to me these look much better. They are on minifig scale and the buildings will fit easily into a Lego town, plus all the prettier colours will work well for building shops/cafes etc.

I'm looking forward to getting some of these when they finally come out, they should fit nicely alongside the modular houses that I have.

[Wardancer]

I would like to see Olivia’s Tree House in the Guild's Tower competition.

After all, it has a retractable ladder, reconnaissance butterflies, anti-cat bait and a golden anti-cat gun.

[lightningtiger]

Well not in Avalonia !

Actually I must say it's cute though.....yes, little girls will go nuts over Lego's answer to Pocket Polly !

Aw, a cute little yellow bird....where's Sylvester ?

[Taaron]

Welp, I was gonna try and only get one set from this theme. However, it looks like I'll be getting at least three.

For where there are hedgehogs and robots, my money will go.

I had been planning on getting 3933, Olivia's Inventor workshop, as I liked the little Robot build, and after examining it, I liked the entire look of the workshop.

Now that I've found 3188 Heartlake Vet has the hedgehog figure, I'll probably be picking it up just for that. (Though, I wonder if Lego will offer the hedgehog on Pick a Brick?)

and finally 3936, Emma's Design Studio. I always liked seeing design studios be it fashion, architecture or whatever, so the entire look of the set really appeals to me.

[Aanchir]

Brickset recently had a news article linking to this thorough and well-written article about planning and designing the LEGO Friends theme. I liked some of the observations:

"Encouraged by what it had learned about boys, Lego sent its team back out to scrutinize girls, starting in 2007. The company was surprised to learn that in their eyes, Lego suffered from an aesthetic deficit. “The greatest concern for girls really was beauty,” says Hanne Groth, Lego’s market research manager. Beauty, on the face of it, is an unsurprising virtue for a girl-friendly toy, but based on the ways girls played, Groth says, it came, as “mastery” had for boys, to stand for fairly specific needs: harmony (a pleasing, everything-in-its-right-place sense of order); friendlier colors; and a high level of detail."

"The key difference between girls and the ladyfig and boys and the minifig was that many more girls projected themselves onto the ladyfig—she became an avatar. Boys tend to play with minifigs in the third person. “The girls needed a figure they could identify with, that looks like them,” says Rosario Costa, a Lego design director. The Lego team knew they were on to something when girls told them, “I want to shrink down and be there.”"

Overall it's this sort of thorough research that leads me to put a lot of faith in TLG's more ambitious, less traditional endeavors. Unlike what we as fans sometimes assume, there's a lot of time, money, and attention put into making sure new sets are a good idea before they go to market. And while that's no guarantee that TLG has anticipated all the variables that could make or break a new concept, it at least means that they usually have more knowledge going in than the typical AFOL.

Edited December 15, 2011 by Aanchir

[AllanSmith]

Well not in Avalonia !

Actually I must say it's cute though.....yes, little girls will go nuts over Lego's answer to Pocket Polly !

Aw, a cute little yellow bird....where's Sylvester ?

Don't know where Sylvester is, but I know there are horse related sets coming out in August

[lightningtiger]

Don't know where Sylvester is, but I know there are horse related sets coming out in August

Great, now it turns into the Saddle Club !

Let's hope for us there are some more shops.....oh, that would be ever so handy for parts and accessories.

[Niku]

There is such a great quantity of sets that surprises me, the effort of TLG on this theme.

Well after all, I think will have to buy a set.

[Arigomi]

There's at least one; Mel who is Australian. I've never met her but she has friends in my LUG. I was told she designed the molding machine exclusive set.

Astrid is part of the design team for Creator. She has done some of the building tip videos, including one on designing cars. I'm pretty sure she was responsible for designing 5767 Cool Cruiser.

Looking a pictures for 3315 Olivia's House, I noticed a new play feature that hasn't been implemented in LEGO houses before. All of the rooms and the rooftop patio are modular. This allows you to rearrange the house into several different configurations. This feature reminds me of a part in the businessweek.com article that mentions how the building process was tweaked to better fit with how girls play. The modular nature of the house means that girls can shift gears from building to storytelling by using just the rooms they have completed so far. I think its a very clever approach to address how girls play with LEGO.

Edited December 17, 2011 by Arigomi

[lightningtiger]

Try these links for apples.....

From what I can see it's Pocket Polly meets 90's classic town inspired designs.....the vet come with new medical tools.....oh, hope for realistic metallic colours for them too !

The Cafe looks fantastic....perfect to take minifigs instead of those mini-dolls....though they are cute.

Edited December 17, 2011 by lightningtiger

[Lordofdragonss]

Thanks for sharing these man! This commercials look so colorfull! And we can see how much new accesories they have!

[dotmike]

Try these links for apples.....

Great find, Tiger!

The ads help put it in context for me: in the space of a day I've gone from reading the Businessweek article, to controversy over girls should/shouldn't be girly, to finally getting it.

Nice touch having the modulars in the opening sequence:

It sort of connects it to "our" world!

[Brickity]

Wow the sets are super detailed, so many new pieces and accessories. These new hairstyles will look perfect on the traditional minifigs, specially with those hair accessories and ribbons

Edited December 17, 2011 by Otherworld

[lightningtiger]

If you look closely at the vet clinic, you see a stethoscope with an overside pick-up....must click onto a stud....why ? Does anyone get the feeling that this will be used and the other new medical gear in any other sets in the near future.....perhaps say city ?

[SilvaShado]

While I doubt I'll buy many of these sets and when I do it will be for parts - that's kind of what I'm hoping Friends will do for us fans, give our regular sets more accessories. Like one set I saw had a milk jug (a printed 1X1 blue brick), which would be cool to have in City sets. While some of the animals are on the stylized side, I bet some could fit into other sets.

It just comes back to the figures not looking like LEGO, they look like Polly Pocket.

[lightningtiger]

Has any one suggested that the figures sort of remind them of Playmobile fused with Pocket Polly !

Playmobile have fixed hand/arm movement in the same way.

[CM4Sci]

Youtube user HKTOYSRUS uploaded a Friends commercial for the Cafe. If it's been shared already..sorry.

-Sci

Edited December 18, 2011 by CM4S

[lightningtiger]

Yep, posted it's link the other day.....but thanks 'CM4S' because I just noticed something.....I hope that Mix Master comes in more colours than yellow....finally realistic appliances except unrealistic colours....Lego learn with you !

[CM4Sci]

Yep, posted it's link the other day.....but thanks 'CM4S' because I just noticed something.....I hope that Mix Master comes in more colours than yellow....finally realistic appliances except unrealistic colours....Lego learn with you !

So..should I remove it or something?

Oh, k. I saw that mixer too, and I was amazed. I really love those cupcake bottoms...

-Sci